King last spoke to Hawking six years ago, when Hawking said: “Mankind is in danger of destroying ourselves by our greed and stupidity.” On Monday, King checked in with him to see what has changed in the past six years.
“We have certainly not become less greedy or less stupid,” Hawking replied.
Hawking gave a quick recap of what the world looks like in 2016, saying: “Six years ago, I was warning about pollution and overcrowding, they have gotten worse since then.”
“The population has grown by half a billion since our last interview, with no end in sight. At this rate, it will be eleven billion by 2100. Air pollution has increased by 8 percent over the past five years. More than 80 percent of inhabitants of urban areas are exposed to unsafe levels of air pollution,” he said.
Despite the grim outlook for our civilization, Hawking said pollution, what he felt was the biggest problem facing humanity, had still not been addressed.
“The increase in air pollution and the emission of increasing levels of carbon dioxide. Will we be too late to avoid dangerous levels of global warming?” he said.
But that isn’t the only thing Hawking is concerned about. When asked about the dangers of artificial intelligence, Hawking explained that increases in technology may be coming at a steep cost, saying:
“Governments seem to be engaged in an AI arms race, designing planes and weapons with intelligent technologies. The funding for projects directly beneficial to the human race, such as improved medical screening seems a somewhat lower priority.”, RT reported.
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